The Argentine government has offered to lower its tariffs for products from the United States, an official of Donald Trump’s administration confirmed on Tuesday. Last week, Trump slapped all U.S. trading partners with reciprocal tariffs, and some countries are now trying to negotiate a way out of the new tariff scheme.

Like almost all Latin American countries, Argentina received the minimum 10% tax from Trump’s new measures.

“Nearly 50 countries have approached me personally to discuss the president’s new policy and explore how to achieve reciprocity, and they’ve spoken with many members of the administration,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said at a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee.

“Several of these countries, such as Argentina, Vietnam, India, and Israel, have suggested that they will reduce their tariffs and non-tariff barriers in line with the president’s policy, and these obviously are welcome moves,” Greer added.

The same day, Greer’s office issued a report on foreign trade barriers, saying that Argentina’s average Most-Favored-Nation applied tariff rate was 13.4% in 2023, with 10.3% for agricultural products and 13.8% for non-agricultural products.

The report also listed import bans and restrictions, adding that “notwithstanding significant improvements to payment terms, importers are still limited in when they can access the foreign exchange market to pay invoices for imported goods and services.”

It was also noted that Argentina “remains closed to U.S. live cattle, pending continued technical level engagement between the United States and Argentina on a mutually agreeable sanitary certificate.”

Last week, Argentine President Javier Milei said his government has already changed multiple country regulations to comply with the United States’ reciprocal tariff policy that will go into effect on Wednesday evening. 

“Just like President Trump, we do politics with facts, not just words. This is a time of action,” he said, adding that his government is “committed to resolving the [trade] asymmetry with the United States in a short period.” He added that he instructed the Foreign Ministry and the Secretary of Commerce to change whatever other norms were necessary.

After a wild session for international markets on Monday that included the worst stretch of the S&P 500 since the outbreak of Covid in 2020, Greer said the following day that “the president’s strategy is already bearing fruit.” He justified it by saying that a planned layoff in an autopart manufacturing plant was suspended and that another automaker was “hiring additional employees and expanding overtime.”

“Our large and persistent trade deficit has been over 30 years in the making, and it will not be resolved overnight, but all of this is in the right direction, particularly as we start to negotiate with these countries,” he said. “We must move away from an economy that’s based solely on government spending and the financial sector, and we must become an economy based on producing real goods and services.”